Gulf News

Iran earthquake: At least 530 people have died

International Desk2017-11-15 13:29:33

At least 530 people have died and more than 70,000 in need of emergency shelter after devastating earthquake on Iran-Iraq border.

Rescue workers in Iran resumed work as soon as the sun rose on Tuesday. Diggers and other heavy equipment were used to shift the debris caused by the magnitude 7.3 earthquake which struck on Sunday evening.

More than 70,000 people are now in need of emergency shelter in the cold November temperatures.

Relief workers said while much aid had been pledged, there was an immediate need for blankets, children’s clothes, medicine and large cans to store drinking water.

Field hospitals were coping with the thousands of injured, although many were being sent for treatment in other cities.

It struck at a relatively shallow depth of 23.2 kilometres (14.4 miles), which usually leads to broader surface-level damage, and tremors recorded as far west as the Israeli coast of the Mediterranean and as far south as Baghdad.

Across the border in Iraq, the earthquake killed at least seven people and injured 535 others, all in the country’s northern, semi-autonomous Kurdish region, according to its Interior Ministry.

Many of the heavily damaged complexes in Sarpol-e-Zahab were part of construction projects begun under former hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.